Alaska senators, Peltola slam Biden administration NPR-A, Ambler Road Decision

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Alaska’s two U.S. senators and lone representative expressed frustration with the Biden administration’s latest attempt to preserve state lands at the cost of resource development, while Alaska Native leaders around the state were mixed on its impact.

In a harshly-worded rebuke, Sen. Dan Sullivan said the “Public Lands Rule,” announced Friday by the president, will “punish Americans” by hindering domestic energy production while allowing foreign countries to “dominate” the minerals industry.

The ruling from the Department of the Interior invests in maintaining public lands, waters, and clean energy deployment, according to a release by the department, and is part of President Joe Biden’s Investing in America agenda.

It also spotlights two energy initiatives in Alaska: the Ambler Road project in Interior Alaska, and the North Slope’s National Petroleum Reserve In Alaska, known as NPR-A.

Sullivan highlighted what he believes are devastating impacts the rule will have.

“The dictators in Beijing, Moscow, Tehran are on the march. They’re working together,” Sullivan said during a Thursday news conference in Washington D.C. “They’re trying to undermine America’s national security interests and those of our allies across the globe. At other times of dangerous global challenges. The normal policy approach, both of Democrat administrations and Republican administrations, has been to maximize our country’s strengths while undermining those of our adversaries. But the Biden administration is not normal.”

The rule from the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management — which oversees more than 380,000 square miles of land, primarily in the U.S. West — will allow public property to be leased for restoration in the same way that oil companies lease land for drilling.

The rule also promotes the designation of more “areas of critical environmental concern” — a special status that can restrict development. It’s given to land with historic or cultural significance or that’s important for wildlife conservation.

The land bureau has a history of industry-friendly policies and for more than a century has sold grazing permits and oil and gas leases. In addition to its surface land holdings, the bureau regulates publicly-owned underground mineral reserves — such as coal for power plants and lithium for renewable energy — across more than 1 million square miles.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski joined Sullivan at Thursday’s press conference, saying that restricting Alaska’s resource development would be more than a “1-2 punch” to the state.

“This is the energy insecurity that we’re talking about, because we’re still going to need the Germanium, the gallium, the copper. We’re still going to need the oil. But we’re just not going to get it from Alaska,” Murkowski said. “We’re just not going to get it from the United States. We’d rather take it from Iran, from Russia. and all the other places where they really don’t care about us, and they love the fact that we’re being crippled by our own administration.”

Rep. Mary Peltola wrote that the decision is a “huge step back for Alaska, failing to strike a balance between the need for gap oil and natural gas and legitimate environmental concerns, and steamrolling the voices of many Alaska Natives in the decision-making process.”

“The Ambler Road decision is premature, as real conversations among stakeholders in the region are ongoing,” she added. “Alaska has a wealth of natural resources that can be responsibly developed to help boost domestic manufacturing and innovation — in the end, it should be up to Alaskans to decide what they want developed in their regions.”

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said in a release that the ruling strengthens the administration’s goal of curbing “worsening climate impacts” in America and around the world.

“Today’s final rule helps restore balance to our public lands as we continue using the best-available science to restore habitats, guide strategic and responsible development, and sustain our public lands for generations to come,” Haaland said. “Complemented with historic investments from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, we are implementing enduring changes that will benefit wildlife, communities and habitats.”

Gov. Mike Dunleavy responded Friday by saying the restricting actions against the NPR-A and the Ambler Road Project will “deprive Alaskans of the opportunity for good-paying jobs and prevent Alaska from upholding its constitutional mandate to develop natural resources for the maximum benefit of the people.”

Alaska Native groups were mixed about the ruling. On a morning news conference that included tribal leaders from the Tanana Chiefs Conference and the Native Village of Evansville, leaders celebrated the decision impacting NPR-A oil and gas leases and the potential Ambler Road mining project, saying it protects their culture and land.

“This is a historic win for the Alaska Native community,” Tanana Chief Chair Brian Ridley said in a statement. “It reaffirms that our voices matter, that our knowledge is invaluable, and that our lands and animals deserve protection.”

Leaders with Earthjustice, a nonprofit group involved in environmental law, said the ruling establishes “stronger protections” against oil and gas development on the North Slope, a particularly vulnerable area of the globe.

“We applaud the Biden Administration for this important step to increase protections for 13 million acres of the Western Arctic to safeguard the irreplaceable ecosystems and wildlife found there,” Earthjustice President Abigail Dillen said. “We look forward to partnering with the administration to adopt new measures applicable throughout the Western Arctic to further protect it and our climate from expanded drilling.”

Meanwhile, leaders with the Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat condemned the decision, saying they feel the potential loss of revenue will hurt their Alaska Native way of life.

“The federal government has again excluded the Indigenous North Slope Iñupiat from policymaking by issuing a final rule for the NPR-A that does not reflect our communities’ wishes,” President Nagruk Harcharek said. “This is a deeply concerning trend by an administration that regularly claims to be the most Indigenous friendly government on record. Yet, this administration’s record does not live up to its own rhetoric.

“As a result, the final NPR-A rule will hurt the very residents the federal government purports to help by rolling back years progress, impoverishing our communities, and imperiling our Iñupiaq culture. To quote one of our 20th century leaders, ‘There’s not much you can do when your own government says shut up. It hurts.’”

Editor’s note: Associated Press reporter Matthew Brown contributed to this story.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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